Spock
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Spock said:So my question is, if a laithwaite engine (my attached photo) spins fast enough, will it be able to lift off the ground? And if yes, what's the maths to calculate the speed needed to make it lift?
In his lecture before the Royal Institution he claimed that gyroscopes weigh less when spinning and, to demonstrate this, he showed that he could lift a spinning gyroscope mounted on the end of a rod easily with one hand but could not do so when the gyroscope was not spinning. At this time, Laithwaite suggested that Newton's laws of motion could not account for the behaviour of gyroscopes and that they could be used as a means of reactionless propulsion. The members of the Royal Institution rejected his ideas and his lecture was not published.